Leatherdale Farms Celebrates Second Consecutive Dressage Breeder Award Story and Photos by Annan Hepner
Leatherdale Farms has long been recognized for its superior-quality Hanoverian breeding program, both in the United States and in Germany. The Leatherdale team includes high performance riders and horses that compete in many different countries, but three riders choose to train and show in Wellington during the winter season in order to gain experience competing in a topnotch environment. For the second year in a row, Louise Leatherdale and Leatherdale Farms received the prestigious Adequan/USDF Dressage Breeder of the Year award after earning top scores at the 2017 Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington and at other competitions in the United States. In addition to the breeder award, many of Leatherdale’s young horses also received recognition in the USDF Horse of the Year awards, as well as in the American Hanoverian Society year-end awards. With an impressive score of 192,
Vanessa Creech-Terauds aboard Leatherdale Farms’ Fleur De Lis L.
which was nearly 100 points higher than the next breeder, the Leatherdale Farms breeding program was rewarded with the extraordinary averages of several sport horses, many of which are by its own stallions. “The Leatherdale Farms horses are very talented and the top breeding is evident in the creation of very intelligent and athletic horses,” Leatherdale Farms young horse rider/trainer Mike Suchanek said. Suchanek also credits the teams’ success to the pride Leatherdale and her late husband, Doug, had for their operation, as well as their dedication and passion for the horses. “Doug and Louise really took their time and did their research to handpick the lineages, as they wanted to create a line of horses that were talented but also had great minds,” Suchanek explained. “Louise is a very special woman
— she carries on the passion that Doug had for this sport and for the horses. She wants the very best for her horses, and she cares just as much about the people she hires as she does her amazing animals.” Leatherdale Farms’ 17-year-old gelding Devon L’s experience shone through as he claimed first place in the Grand Prix Open All-Breed award for the American Hanoverian Society after his standout season in Wellington. Devon L has won the award several times during his successful career, and in 2017, he earned points with the help of both Diane Creech and her 17-year-old daughter, Vanessa Creech-Terauds, who also began competing in the Under 25 Grand Prix division with him last spring. “Devon L loves to perform, and he has taken me so many places. I will always be grateful to him and to Louise, who has supported us all these years,” wellington the magazine | march 2018
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